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Game of Thrones - 12 maps of the Known World

Last year I was commissioned by Random House to create 12 24″ by 36″ maps of the world of A Song of Ice and Fire by George RR Martin. It was a dream commission for me. I originally read the books in college and, like so many others, was absorbed by the rich world. The lack of good maps bothered me, but I assumed that some day they would be created. I never expected I’d be the one to do it.

More details on the blog here, and more to come over the course of the month.

Wow! Congratulations Torstan! But honestly, I can't think of many other cartographers who would have been the right fit for so important a commission. Beautiful work on this piece, it really is marvelous.

Awesome maps Torstan!
I love coincidences. As I write this, I am half way through making a set of maps of a watch tower for a GM who is running a Song of Ice and Fire game at COSCON in 2 weeks. Once she plays the game I will post the maps.

great-looking maps and congrats on the commissions! I've always been intrigued by how someone goes about being a pro cartographer, not that i have any delusions of doing it myself, though the idea always interested me as it's a pretty niche vocation.

Love the maps, Torstan. It is indeed a dream commission and you certainly rose to the challenge.

I have to say though, I'm very underwhelmed with the actual product. I know it is completely out of your hands but I was really looking forward to a lushly printed large format book that I could flick through for hours and pore over all your lovely little details. The folio of maps though... for one thing they do not encourage browsing of the maps at leisure. You have to get them out and unfold them and have them on a surface. Then you need to fold it, put it away and get another one out... I like to just pick up a book, open a page and admire the artwork. Another thing, and this is even worse, is that the quality of the paper that the maps are printed on isn't great. I haven't even opened some of the maps - not even cracked them half an inch - and yet the paper is fraying at the fold line, some quite badly so. If I wanted to display some of these posters they would look terrible with the big white grid it has created on them... anyway, sorry for the mini rant. I hope someone official from the publishing house decides to make a book from your maps instead and I would purchase one in a second because I love the artwork.

Ramah - yes, the paper quality was the biggest complaint about the maps, along with the fact that they were marketed using the word book, when the product is really a folio of poster maps. That's been clarified on the product page now. Those things are definitely out of my hands, but they have full rights to the maps, so I hope that they come round to including them in a book in the future.

vorropohaiah - scroll back through my posts here on the guild and you'll see how the pro-cartography worked out I started off like everyone else here, posting WIPs and my maps for my home game. A couple of 3rd party publishers started asking me to do small commissions and it all built up from there.

These look wonderful Torstan. What a great job you've done in making it all come to life.

“When it’s over and you look in the mirror, did you do the best that you were capable of? If so, the score does not matter. But if you find that you did your best you were capable of, you will find it to your liking.” -John Wooden

The Free Cities

Today we’re travelling to the Narrow Sea and visiting the city states of Lys, Pentos, Myr and Braavos.

Much of the action in A Song of Ice and Fire takes place in Westeros, but the Free Cities cast a long shadow. Ships in harbor are regularly Braavosi, or Pentoshi. We know Daenarys spent time in Pentos, and the longer we spend with her, the more we realise the Pentoshi weren’t just being nice.

As with the world map, this covers the 24" by 36" poster map I illustrated last year for Random House as part of the Lands of Ice and Fire.